Drilling down to the city and the overall MSA levels, figures show that the area around the state capital, within the Austin- Round Rock-San Marcos Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), is the fastest-growing in the country. Cities ranked within this MSA include San Marcos, which leads the pack at number one with an 8 percent increase in population, followed by Cedar Park at number four with a 5.6 percent increase, and Georgetown, in seventh position, with a 4.5 percent gain. According to the Texas Workforce Commission, from February 2014 to March 2014, the Capital Area unemployment rate decreased by 0.4 percent to 4.4 percent. The Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos MSA also shows an annual growth rate of over 5 percent. Further, between 1995 and 2012, this area gained over $535 million directly from California.

The cities of Frisco and McKinney are located on the outer reaches of the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington MSA, and hold the second and thirteenth positions for national growth. Standing alone, Frisco had a meteoric 247 percent increase in population since the year 2000. During this current census reporting period, the city showed an increase of 6.5 percent. Likewise, since the year 2000, McKinney has grown by 141 percent. The 2014 census report shows an increase of 3.9 percent. As a whole, the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington MSA has an unemployment rate of 4.7 percent, and with all counties included, secured nearly $1 billion dollars in migrated wealth from California.

The Midland-Odessa Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), site of the number-eleven-ranked city of Odessa, had the lowest December unemployment rate in the state, at 2.8 percent. Odessa’s growth rate was 4 percent. Residents of Midland and Odessa are projected to see a growth rate of between 4 and 5 percent for the remainder of 2014, thanks to fracking operations in the Permian Basin oil and gas fields.

While most of these cities are part of larger MSAs, they are ranked in the Census Bureau Report as significant job centers on their own.

So I would say that if you are a resident of California and can’t seem to find your old neighbors or locate the company for which you once worked, begin and end your search in Texas. Odds are fairly good that is where you will find them.